Leather and Lace
by Bonnie Parker
Summary: Can Amber and Bray make it out of a world they're suddenly trapped in, but don't belong it? Don't expect many other characters from the show. Very alternate-reality type story.


Leather and Lace Disclaimer: All the Tribe stuff, including characters Amber and Bray, belongs to Cloud 9. This story, however, belongs to me. **Lyrics belong to The Pretenders.**

Timeframe: **Amber is already about 3 months pregnent. **Contains no spoilers due to the nature of the plot, excluding Amber's baby.

Location: God knows where

--------------

They came by the hundred. Young Men and woman all dressed from head to toe in black. Men in leather and woman in lace. They weren't leaving without what they came for.

They came for two people from each tribe. A man and a woman.

Bray felt something creep up his back, and turned around only in time to notice a nose had already been slipped around his neck. He spotted Amber running from anothre man, dressed just like the one attacking Bray. "Amber, run!"

He was too late. The strangers in leather and lace were quicker than anyone the Mall Rats had ever delt with before. They were stong, and there were quite litterally 700 of them. And all they wanted was Amber and Bray. They watched as the rest of the mall rats scattered, and no one even tried to capture them.

--------------

_There'll be no strings to bind you hands,  
Not if my love can bind your heart.  
And there's no need to take a stand,  
For it was I who chose to start.  
I see no reason to take me home,  
I'm old enough to face the dawn.  
Just call me Angel of the morning, Angel.  
__Just touch my cheek before you leave me, Baby.  
Just call me Angel of the morning, Angel._

Amber had no idea what was happening to her. It was all too fast. Too much, too fast, too much... She couldn't take it. She couldn't see anything. Something was covering her eyes, but her arms were tied behind her back.

_God, where am I?_ She thought. She'd been sitting for what must have been 4 hours with people practically holding her down. She wanted to see. She couldn't get away if she had no idea what was going on.

_Bray, they took Bray too_. Amber was wondering if everyone else got away, or if they'd just gotten them after herself. _My Baby. What about my baby?_ The hell was scared out of her, and her face had lost all it's coluor. She'd never seen people like these before. She hadn't gotten a close look, but some of them may have been _adults_. She had no idea what they had planned._ I have to ask._

"Excuse me?" She asked to whoever it was that was holding her arms down. "But would you tell we what the hell you're doing with me? With Bray? I'm pregnent. I have a baby... don't even think about hurting my baby or I'll rip you apart and leave in a ditch where you'll lie in pain for what feels like years regreting what you're done..."

"Hey, chill, bitch." It was a man who answered her. "No one's hurting you or your baby, or this 'Bray.' His name isn't Bray anymore. We don't have names. He's a Y."

Amber didn't quite understand what he'd just said. "Well what the hell does that make me?"

"You are an X." He sounded like it should have been obvious. When he say the frown on her face with confussion, he contuined. "Men have a Y cromosone. We are Ys. Women have both Xs. You are Xs."

"Let me go. I'm not sitting around wondering if my baby is going to be an X or a Y." Amber was pissed. This guy wanted her to just go with the flow and make these people her new family.

"You might want to go home. You can't. We are immune to pain. We want to help you." He sounded sincere and sympathetic. He took his hands off holding her down and placed one of her shoulder. "We don't want you to ever hurt again."

"Like I fucking need your help!" She knew she could have kicked him and gotten away. But she knew the rest of them had to be around... very close. She calmed down after a second, and took a deep breath. "Tkae of my blindfold. It doesn't help."

"Shhh, we're almost there. When we arrive, they will take off your blindfold. They will give you the robes and dress you."

_He's serious._ Amber thought to herself. The robes? _Please. No one else is wearing a robe. The only people I know who were robes are the Ch- _"The _robes_?"

"The clothing. You saw them. Leather and Lace. All black. We're got to do something about that hair as well, it stand out more than even the others." He was insane. He had to be. There were two wires in his head that weren't connected.

"So you're not the Chosen? No purple robes?" She was relieved. They weren't what she was wishing with her life they weren't...

"The Chosen? No." He laughed. "We have no name. Names only bind you down, they are a part of the pain."

"Where's Bray?" She asked agian.

"The Y you speak of is being robed as well."

"His _name_ is Bray." Amber corrected, jerking her head away. "When can I see him again? I need to talk to him."

"Not his name anymore." He laughed. "You will see him as much as you see the rest of us. Anything you must say to him you may say to all of us. We are all now as close to you as he is."

Amber's jaw dropped open. Had her hands not been tied she'd have slapped him right across the face. "You are _not_ cloe to me! I want to talk to Bray _**now**_."

"Oh. I think I get it." Suddenly the strange man shunned Amber away. "Your old tribe was monogomous, huh? That's too bad."

Amber's left pinky twisted the rope around her hands. She did it slow and made no noise, as she spoke in a whiney voice. "He's the father of my baby! My baby isn't growing up and X or a Y and isn't growing up without Bray as her father."

"We're here.You need to be clothed." Amber stopped untying the rope the second she felt someone else do it for her. Then the man took off her blindfold. What she saw stunned her and make her spine shiver.

There must have been 10,000 of them. They all looked the same. They were the Xs and the Ys. Black hair to the woman's shoulders, men with shaved, very short black hair. Amber was sitting in the middle of all the chaos of a 'normal' town husling along. A town fillied with everyone from babies to senior citizens. Everyone looked so happy.

They all looked... identical. Suddenly a woman came up holding Bray's arms behind his back. Amber had never felt so helpless in her entire life... and knew Bray could only have felt the exact same way.

Then they did it. The _robing_ or whatever they called it. Amber watched them cut her hair the length the others had it, and stood around while they dyed it black. She didn't bother fighting back. She could knock one of them down. She could kick another. But she couldn't get the other 9,998 off her back.

She glared at Bray. He was across the room, and he was looking at her as well. His hair was shaved to look just like Ryan's hair, and was also dyed black... even though it was too short to even know the colour.

Then they handed them their 'leather and lace' outfits. Not exactally what Amber would have called sylin', although she did admire the bold mix of leather and lace for such... let's-all-be-the-same people...x

"Nu uh. I am not getting dressed right here!" Amber shouted when she realized they expected her to strip right in front of them.

"You'll get used to it. We do not get embaressed about our bodies here." Someone answered.

"It's not about that!" Bray suddenly screamed from across whereever the hell they were. He grabbed the colar of the man who'd answered Amber's anger, and pushed him up against the wall of a house the stood behind him. "We're not playing yoyur fucking mind games!"

Bray let go of his colar when he noticed how many people really _were_ around. The numbers had to have been climbing - and suddenly everyone had turned their attention towards Bray and Amber.

So they did it. They dressed in frong of everyone standing around. _Put up with the bullshit now, run later_. Amber figured.

As soon as she was dressed a younger man about Amber's age approached her and took her into a small room. She just followed him, decieding to stick with her earlier plan.

That is, until he started to talk. "Alright then, let's get to it shall we?"

"Get to what?" Amber didn't like where this was going.

He laughed. "The mating, of couse."

"_Mating?_ You actually think I'm gonna have sex with you? Who the hell do you think you are?" Amber screamed in his face. 6 hours ago, She would have laughed if you told her she's look completely differnt and was about to partake in a sex ritual in some weird cult of 10,00 strange people aging from 0 to 100.

"I am a Y and you are an X. That is all that this involves." He answered dryly.

"You know what? I'm 3 months pregent and I'm _not_ sleeping with you or anyone else besides Bray." Amber slammbed her tight fist into the shabby little wall and actually dented it in a little.

"How about Pride?" He asked with a little smike on his face.


End file.
